An AutoZone worker who stopped an armed robbery by retrieving a weapon from his truck

My apologies if this is a repost, but i searched before I posted it so it's an honest mistake. Post on their facebook page if you want. Personally, I wouldn't go back if I were him. But they should at least fix it.

Devin McLean and his store manager were about to close the AutoZone in York County, Va. when a gunman barged into the store.

“He pulled a gun from his waist band and demanded me and my manager go back into the office,” McLean told Fox News.

At some point, McLean was left in a restroom while the gunman made the manager open the store safe. That’s when McLean, a 23-year-old Air Force veteran, bolted through a side door and ran to his truck.

He returned through the front door holding a Glock 40 – pointed directly at the masked robber.

“I told him to freeze and to drop his weapon,” McLean told Fox News.

Instead, the robber took off – last seen running down the street from the store.

“I watched him run down the street,” he said. “I came back inside and made sure my manager was okay and he called the police.”

The York County Sheriff’s Dept. believes the bandit is responsible for as many as 30 robberies across the region.

“One of the officers asked why I didn’t shoot the robber,” McLean said.

Sheriff J.D. Diggs told Fox News he considers McLean to be a hero.

“He did a very brave thing,” the sheriff said. “He put himself in jeopardy in an attempt to make sure his friend was safe. He did a very brave thing.”

The part-time worker’s manager was especially thankful and credited McLean with saving his life.

But two days after the robbery – and just a week before Thanksgiving – McLean was fired.

Television station WTKR reported that McLean violated corporate policy by leaving the store and returning with a weapon.

The station spoke to a representative from the company’s corporate office who said they had a “zero tolerance policy for employees having weapons inside the store.”

An AutoZone spokesman told Fox News they will not discuss the matter.

“It was a surprise to me,” McLean said. “I did the right thing. I saved the company $2,000. I saved one of their manager’s lives – and you’re letting me go? It was a slap in the face.”

McLean said the firing came at a difficult time. He’s about to be a first-time father.

“We’re having a little boy,” he said. “I remember when the guy came in with that gun. My initial thought was I want to make it home to my family. I want to have the opportunity to meet my son and for my son to meet his dad. And for someone to come in and shove a gun in your face?”

So why not just keep running? Why go back inside the store – and risk your own life?

“I regard them as my family,” McLean said of his co-workers. “You’re not going to leave your brother or sister behind.”

It’s a lesson he learned in the Air Force.

“Never leave a man behind,” he said. “I’m not going to leave my brother in a room with a guy with a gun – that’s threatening his life.”

In spite of losing his job, McLean said his actions would be the same if it happened again.

“I wouldn’t change anything,” he said.

The sheriff said he was disappointed to hear that McLean lost his job on account of stopping the robbery.

“That’s certainly unfortunate,” he said. “They should be doing something to reward that young man instead of firing him.”

Sheriff Diggs said AutoZone has also sent an unintended message to the community.

“The company has now sent a message to every would-be robber out there – ‘Hey we’re open for business and unarmed. Come on in and take our money,’” he said.

Meanwhile, the backlash against AutoZone is spreading. Cam Edwards, of NRA News, called AutoZone’s decision an “injustice.”

“It may have been corporate policy to fire Devin McLean, but it’s also an injustice. He came to the aid of a fellow employee threatened by an armed robber and was canned. They should have named him employee of the year.”

He said the nation needs more people like McLean.

“He had the chance to run away but instead he chose to arm himself with his legally owned gun and save the life of his supervisor,” Edwards told Fox News. “Wouldn’t we all like to work with someone like Devin?”

Customers have launched a boycott against the company on Facebook and a petition has been started urging them to rehire McLean.

“There’s a Pep Boys right around the corner,” one irate customer wrote on Facebook.

I believe AutoZones sole reasoning for their policy is liability. They could care less about the safety of an employee during an armed robbery(be a cooperative unarmed victim and hope for the best mentality). They only have concern over the liability of an employee shooting and/or killing someone and the following lawsuits etc....Their liability for the death of an employee being robbed is probably diminimus, if any, and can always just mop up the blood from the floor and hire new expendable employee's w/o the liability of a lawsuit.

Please, please... if you are incensed by AutoZone's actions in terminating this employee, send them a message and voice your displeasure, telling them not only will you cease doing any business with them but will tell your friends and spread this on websites where you are a member. I have already sent them two messages and am doing here what I told them I would.

This happened a few days ago.Denner has it right,a lot of buisnesses have this policy and you can pretty much guarrantee a corporation does.Walllyworld had fired quite a few employees over stopping a robbery and without a firearm involved.Standard CYA crap.

Please, please... if you are incensed by AutoZone's actions in terminating this employee, send them a message and voice your displeasure, telling them not only will you cease doing any business with them but will tell your friends and spread this on websites where you are a member. I have already sent them two messages and am doing here what I told them I would.

This zero tolerance stuff takes things to the extreme in many cases. And because it leaves no room for exceptions, really bad things can happen with unintended consequences. Let me give you a perfect example.

A number of years ago (perhaps more than 6 but less than 10), a young male high school student in the very affluent county of Fairfax, Virginia (the second wealthiest county in the nation) was in school and in a hallway when a fight broken out between two girls. One of the girls pulled a knife and the boy, seeing this, managed to get the knife away from the girl who pulled it out. He saw a vice-principle coming down the hallway and he went up to the VP and handed him the knife, telling him what happened. He was escorted to the office and suspended for having a knife in school! Here he stopped what could have been disastrous and it was he who suffered suspension. Is that crazy or what?

This is how far these nutcases who push zero tolerance have taken us. Girls can no longer take Midol to school for menstrual cramps. Forget Bufferin for migraine headaches. And no Aleve for sore muscles. These people are just plain nuts.